EF0 tornado, Fishs Eddy to East Branch, New York, August 12, 2023

1. EF065 to 85 mphthis tornado

   Light damage. Surface peeled off some roofs, gutters and siding damaged, branches broken, shallow-rooted trees pushed over.

2. EF186 to 110 mph

   Moderate damage. Roofs badly stripped, mobile homes overturned or badly damaged, exterior doors lost, windows broken.

3. EF2111 to 135 mph

   Considerable damage. Roofs torn off well-built houses, frame homes shifted on their foundations, mobile homes destroyed, large trees snapped or uprooted, cars lifted off the ground.

4. EF3136 to 165 mph

   Severe damage. Whole stories of well-built houses destroyed, large buildings badly damaged, trains overturned, trees debarked, heavy cars lifted and thrown.

5. EF4166 to 200 mph

   Devastating damage. Well-built houses leveled, structures with weak foundations moved some distance, cars thrown and large missiles generated.

6. EF5over 200 mph

   Incredible damage. Strong frame houses swept off their foundations, car-sized missiles thrown more than 100 meters, steel-reinforced concrete badly damaged, high-rise buildings deformed.

7. Unrated

   The survey recorded a tornado but could not put a number on it, most often because it crossed open country and damaged nothing a rating can be read from.

Rating

EF0

Date

August 12, 2023

Touchdown

6:05 PM EDT (22:05 UTC)

Lifted

6:11 PM EDT (22:11 UTC)

On the ground

6 minutes

Path length

3.7 miles (5.9 km)

Path width

150 yards (137 m)

Deaths

0

Injuries

0

Property damage

$15,000

County

Delaware County

Touchdown point

41.970, -75.180

Lift-off point

41.980, -75.110

Record number

2308121605-01

5 damage points were recorded along this path by NWS BGM, in the Damage Assessment Toolkit the survey teams carry. The strongest indicator was rated EF0. The highest wind the damage implies is 80 mph.

• Large tree uprooted and snapped.
• Couple of trees snapped/down across road. One SW and W.
• Owner says the hemlock tree twisted, spun and came off/up.
• Large tree laying east coming down a hill.

Survey points are preliminary and are the raw material the published rating was built from. Source: NWS Damage Assessment Toolkit.

A frontal boundary moved through Central New York and supported multiple thunderstorms. High instability and shear supported scattered severe thunderstorms containing damaging wind gusts, large hail, and a NWS survey also confirmed a tornado in Delaware County. There were dozens of reports of trees down from other storms, with some trees falling onto occupied vehicles. Fortunately there were no injuries. There were also many reports of large hail with the largest size reported was 1.5 inches, which is about the size of a ping pong ball.

A tornado briefly touched down along the south shore of the East Branch Delaware River near Fishs Eddy causing damage to trees. An eyewitness reported seeing his 75-100 foot hemlock tree twist and snap off about halfway up the trunk. Another eyewitness captured video of a rotating wall cloud in the general vicinity of this |area of damage. The tornado crossed O&W Road, proceeding uphill causing further damage to some trees in the forest and powerlines along Hubbell Hill Road. Due to extremely steep terrain, the evidence of further tornado damage was unobtainable through these wooded areas. Additional tree damage was observed at the intersection of O&W Road and Halls Island Road to the southeast of East Branch. The tornado is believed to have skipped through the mountainous area before lifting over the Beaver Kill. No further damage was noted or reported across the river toward Baxter Mountain.

From NOAA NCEI's Storm Events Database, the narrative the local forecast office wrote for Storm Data.

0 minutes of warning. NWS BGM issued a tornado warning for this county at 22:05 UTC, 0 minutes before the tornado touched down, in force until 22:30 UTC.

The county was under a tornado watch, issued at 16:54 UTC and running to 01:00 UTC.

Every warning and watch covering the touchdown point that day, from the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service products. Lead time is measured from the issue of the warning in force to the touchdown time in the database, both of which were recorded to the minute by different people.

The Storm Prediction Center had this point in a Enhanced Risk, with a 0.05 chance of a tornado within 25 miles. The outlook in force was issued at 19:59 UTC.

SPC's Day 1 convective outlook as it stood when the tornado began, read at the touchdown point. The same archive is on the radar archive.

The radiosonde launches on either side of the tornado, from the nearest station that was launching then, drawn and analyzed the way Storm Lab does: the same diagram, the same parcel and shear definitions SPC's mesoanalysis uses.

The Binghamton radar (KBGM), 74 km away, was scanning. The volume nearest the touchdown began at 22:05 UTC.

Open the radar archive at this moment, over the track

Reflectivity and velocity, decoded from the Level II archive in the browser. Volumes take a few seconds to open the first time.

Local storm reports within 60 km of the path, in the three hours either side.

From the Iowa Environmental Mesonet's archive of National Weather Service local storm reports.

The live radar over the trackEvery 2023 tornado in New YorkEvery tornado in New York since 1950Warnings in force in New York nowThe forecast where you are

15 more were confirmed in the United States that day.

Ratings are the survey's, read off the damage rather than measured; the rating scale is above. Tornado counts rise through the record as reporting improved, so a year in the 1950s is not comparable with one today except for the strongest tornadoes, which were always noticed.

NOAA Storm Prediction Center tornado database, 1950-2025, the official record kept by NOAA's Storm Prediction Center.